End a binding child support agreement

If you aren’t able to agree, you can apply to a court to set aside your agreement. This means the agreement won’t apply from the date the court decides. This will terminate the agreement. These court applications can be costly and complex.

If your agreement was in place before 1 July 2008, it can be ended:

• by a new binding agreement that replaces or terminates the current one
• by both parents agreeing in writing to terminate the agreement
• by a court setting aside the agreement.

Please seek legal advice about ending an agreement through the court.

Read about what ends a child support assessment.

If your care arrangements change

Changes to the care arrangements can affect a child support assessment. You need to tell us about changes straight away. If you don’t tell us within 28 days any of the following may happen:

• your level of care may only apply from the date you tell us
• you may get a child support debt or overpayment
• your assessment may be suspended or ended.

Find out more about how to tell us if your child’s care arrangements change.

We’ll end or suspend a child support agreement for a child when both:

• the receiving parent under the agreement has less than 35% care
• the other parent has at least 35% care of the child.

We may suspend an agreement for a child after a care change for either:

• 28 days
• up to 26 weeks.

The length of the suspension depends on your circumstances. For example, your binding agreement may say that we may suspend for 26 weeks if care changes.

If care changes back during the suspension period, the agreement will restart. If the receiving parent still doesn’t have care when the suspension is over, the agreement for that child will end.

If your agreement ends or suspends

If your agreement ends or is suspended, child support may still be payable for the child. This depends on how your child support assessment started.

If there was a formula based assessment, child support will be payable for the child. If there wasn’t a formula based assessment, no child support will be payable for the child.

If we end or suspend your agreement, we’ll let you know in writing how this will affect you.